Volunteering round-up: March 2019

Love it or hate it, digital is making a massive impact on the way we live. For volunteer managers, this includes how we interact with volunteers too. But is it all good? Can digital tools make volunteer management easier? How can we keep a personal connection with volunteers? How easily can volunteers find our opportunities online?

And as ever, there will be lots of time to network – the forum is a great chance to meet others involved in volunteering around the country.

Our National Volunteering Forums are always very popular, so don’t miss out and please book your place today.

NCVO Annual Conference 2019

NCVO’s Annual Conference 2019 will be held in London on 1 April 2019. Join over 600 colleagues from across the sector to explore trends and tools that you can harness to strengthen and support your organisation. Book your place now.

This event is for senior leaders of voluntary organisations and is very relevant to volunteering leaders. You can view the full programme for the conference, which includes a breakout session focusing on strategic volunteering. Join speakers Shaun Delaney, NCVO’s volunteering development manager, and Rob Jackson, of Rob Jackson Consulting, who will be leading a discussion on how you can strategise and make tactical choices for volunteering in your organisation.

NCVO Members’ Assembly – Bradford

NCVO Members’ Assemblies are a great opportunity for our members to network with each other, share ideas about current issues and talk directly to NCVO staff about how we can support them. Our assemblies also enable us to gather vital intelligence from the sector and understand the challenges voluntary organisations face which informs all our work. We hold 10 meetings throughout the year, aiming to reach all nine English regions. The next meeting will be on 25 March in Bradford, book your place now.

We are planning to work with HMRC to develop clearer and more up-to-date guidance on volunteer expenses, recognition, rewards and gifts. We are really interested in hearing from our members about any situation involving volunteer-related expenditure and how it was dealt with. All case studies will be anonymised and only used to improve understanding of how volunteers are rewarded or incentivised. If you would like to help other volunteer-related organisations please email: volunteering@ncvo.org.uk

NCVO is currently engaged in work to strengthen NHS England’s Recruiting and Managing Volunteers a Practical Guide. As part of this work, we would love to hear from NHS voluntary service managers and volunteering by holding online user testing workshops in the weeks commencing 18 and 25 March.

The purpose of these workshops is to ensure the guide is developed with its users at the core. If you are an NHS voluntary service manager/leader we would be really interested in hearing from you at these workshops. If you are interested in being involved, please complete the survey to let us know your availability.

Understanding barriers to volunteering among young people in deprived areas

Drawing on qualitative fieldwork conducted in Glasgow, James Davies’ paper aims to understand the barriers to volunteering among young people in deprived urban areas. The paper has been made available for free until 31 July 2019 as part of Voluntary Sector Review Editors’ Choice.

This workshop will give you step-by-step guidance on how to assess the impact your volunteers are having on your organisation, your beneficiaries and themselves, as well as on the wider community and other stakeholders.

Like this? Read more

Charlie is a trainee volunteering development policy officer at NCVO, supporting NCVO's volunteering policy work. He has been volunteering since childhood in various roles, including at a community development charity working with the eastern European Roma community in Glasgow, as an adviser at a Citizens Advice bureau, and as a Scout leader.